Danielle Blount and her 3-month-old baby, Ember, wait to be rescued by the Louisiana Army National Guard near Walker on Monday, August 15

Livingston Parish, Louisiana (CNN)–The catastrophic flood devastating Louisiana is now the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since Hurricane Sandy four years ago, the Red Cross said. "Thousands of people in Louisiana have lost everything they own and need our help now," said Brad Kieserman, the Red Cross' vice president of disaster services operations and logistics.

"This disaster is the worst to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy, and we anticipate it will cost at least $30 million -- a number which may grow as we learn more about the scope and magnitude of the devastation."

6,900,000,000,000 gallons of rain in one week.

The calamity struck quickly and ferociously. In one part of Livingston Parish, more than 31 inches of rain fell in 15 hours.

At least 13 people have died across five parishes.

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson visited flood-stricken areas Thursday, a day after the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived. President Barack Obama had directed FEMA Director Craig Fugate to "utilize all resources available to assist in the response and recovery," the White House said. Obama has declared at least 20 parishes as disaster areas. The US Coast Guard, National Guard, local emergency responders and even neighbors have helped rescue more than 30,000 residents and 1,400 pets.

Residents returned to their homes, only to find their belongings soaked and destroyed. Heaps of drenched furniture, mattresses and toys were piled up on lawns as owners struggled to find anything salvageable. Nathan Teaford said many residents have no protection from floods.

"There's areas that are not in a flood plain. They've never required flood insurance and never thought that something like this would happen because they were above elevation," he said. Teaford left his suburban Baton Rouge home in a truck. He came back in a boat. But he was one of the lucky ones; the floodwater stopped at his foundation. Many of his neighbors, though, were not as fortunate.

Gov. John Bel Edwards said at least 40,000 homes have suffered at least some damage. It's not clear how many are uninhabitable. He called on volunteers to help clean out mud from homes.

"Not everyone can do this on their own," the governor said. He said anyone interested in helping can visit VolunteerLouisiana.gov. The Red Cross has also asked for donations to help more than 7,000 people in emergency shelters. "Thousands more are without power in hot, humid conditions," the aid group said.

Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis

Somewhere in the world, a disaster occurs each day. Sometimes the impacts are felt locally, such as the recent wildfires near Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, Colorado, that destroyed 605 homes. Other times, the event reaches across state and national boundaries, such as Hurricane Sandy along the east coast, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Globally, the number of natural disasters has increased fourfold during the past three decades—from about 120 per year during the 1980s to roughly 500 per year now. These disasters, which claim tens of thousands of lives each year, exert a disproportionate impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable individuals.

At the Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis (CDRA) at Colorado State University, we engage in interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach activities for the primary purpose of reducing human vulnerability to disasters and increasing individual and community capacity to prepare for and recover from hazard events.

To learn more, visit us on facebook

and follow us on Twitter

The Katrina Bookshelf

SHOREline Project Overview

Please check out this video featuring Dr. David Abramson and Dr. Lori Peek, the co-founders and co-directors of SHOREline! Here they are describing the background and development of this post-disaster recovery and youth empowerment program.

Brett Blair is a master's student in intercultural and international communication at Royal Roads University. Through a compelling video piece, Brett showcases the work of SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship-funded colleague Robin Cox, who studies youth empowerment as part of disaster recovery. Emphasizing the research's model of participatory, creative engagement, Blair's video also explores the increasingly-vocal youth demographic and its impact on shaping disaster policy and practice.

Gulf Oil Spill Research Goes Mobile with AT&T

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August 23, 2012 - Following disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast Oil Spill, the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health deploys a field team to collect research on the health, social and economic impacts on people who live within disaster zones. Under an agreement with AT&T, the NCDP uses the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 on AT&T's network to conduct surveys in the field and instantly share feedback with their team in New York.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Dispersant Experiment

July 28, 2012 - The BP oil spill made international headlines two summers ago as images of stained beaches and oil-soaked pelicans portrayed what might have been the nation’s greatest ecological disaster. Along with their massive PR efforts, British Petroleum had another method of keeping the spill from sinking their business – the chemical dispersant Corexit. In the months following the spill, over two million gallons were sprayed and injected into the Gulf of Mexico and so began the great experiment…

After six months of filming in the Gulf in 2010, our first project, “Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Dispersant Experiment” draws from local residents, a variety of experts, and an in-depth lab experiment to exposes the truth about BP’s cleanup in the Gulf.

Please help share our piece as we aim to spread this truth and combat the multi-million dollar PR campaign that claims all is well. As legal battles continue to play out, it is not too late to bring justice to the people of the Gulf.

NEED TO KNOW: Preserving memories after Sandy

The Brooklyn-based nonprofit "Care for Sandy" has emerged as one of the critical grassroots groups helping residents impacted by Hurricane Sandy save some of their most cherished memories. For more: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/

Please note that our web site is a work in progress. We encourage you to visit the site regularly for updated information.

The School of Global Environmental Sustainability (SoGES) has announced seven diverse Global Challenges Research Teams and three Resident Faculty Fellows. The awards, which were selected from a competitive field of proposals submitted during the winter of 2015, are intended to encourage interdisciplinary understanding of complex global environmental issues, foster collaborative cross-campus partnerships, and support sustainability research at CSU.

The School funds innovative and interdisciplinary research that addresses sustainability to grand challenges, involving faculty members and researchers from across colleges. Selected projects target all six of the Research Focal Areas:

Climate Change and Energy

Food Security

Environmental Institutions and Governance

Sustainable Communities

Land and Water Resources and

Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management.

“We are very excited about this year’s awards,” says Diana Wall, director of SoGES. “We had a very strong pool of proposals, which shows the breadth and excellence of sustainability work here at CSU. I was particularly pleased that many of the proposals were aimed at improving the connections between scientific research and societal decision-making which is a key need for enhancing global sustainability.”

The 2015-2016 Global Challenges Research Teams

Food Systems Research Group. Principal Investigators: Meagan Schipanski and Arathi Seshadri, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; Cini Brown, Department of Bioagricultural Sciences and Pest Management; Michael Carolan, Department of Sociology; and Robert Duffy, Department of Political Science. This research team will facilitate systems-based research to address the challenge of improving global food accessibility while reducing agriculture’s environmental impacts.

Environmental Justice CSU. Principal Investigators: Tara O’Connor Shelley and Stephanie Malin, Department of Sociology; Dimitris Stevis, Department of Political Science; and Melinda Laituri, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability. This research team will work to deepen and broaden the environmental justice community within CSU, establish networks within the region and globally, and demonstrate how and why equity and environmental justice are necessary elements of the study of the environment, public health, and sustainability.

Hydraulic Fracturing. Principal Investigators: Thomas Borch, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences; Yury Desyaterik, Department of Atmospheric Science; Jens Blotevogel, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and William Hanneman, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences. This research team will study the potential groundwater and human health impacts of surface spills containing chemicals used for unconventional oil and gas exploration.

Social Sciences in Air Quality, Climate, and Health Research. Principal Investigators: Marilee Long, Department of Journalism and Technical Communication and Department of Community and Behavioral Health; Sonia Kreidenweis, Department of Atmospheric Science and Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere; John Volckens, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Energy Development and Health; A.R. Ravishankara, Department of Chemistry; and Jennifer Peel, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences. This research team will study linkages between pollution and other aspects of air quality, climate change, and public health, with engagement from the social sciences to better understand human choices and behavior, improve communication of risks associated with poor air quality, and devise solutions to improve human health.

World Wide Views on Climate Change and Energy. Principal Investigators: Michele Betsill, Department of Political Science; Tony Cheng, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship; David McIvor, Department of Political Science. Following the June 6, 2015, World Wide Views on Climate and Energy ‘Day of Deliberation’ event, this GCRT will convene an interdisciplinary team to discuss results from the event and to conduct academic research projects on citizen engagement and public opinion on climate change and energy issues.

EcoDistrict Urban Resiliency Metrics. Principal Investigators: Brian Dunbar, Institute for the Built Environment; Jane Choi, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture; and Jeni Cross, Department of Sociology. This research team will develop standardized measures and collect baseline data to create a scientifically rigorous set of metrics for the EcoDistrict Framework, which will eventually be tested in the City of Fort Collins to help the City realize its climate neutrality, resource reduction, and healthy community goals.

Adaptation to Alternating Weather Extremes. Principal Investigators: Craig Trumbo, Department of Journalism and Technical Communication; Lori Peek, Department of Sociology; Melinda Laituri, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability; and Russ Schumacher, Department of Atmospheric Science. This research team will study the ecological and social impacts of rapid “whiplash” among droughts, wildfires, and floods as a consequence of climate change and work to identify strategies to better prepare communities for sustainable adaptation to this increasing threat.

“The support from SoGES will help us cultivate relationships among social, biological, and physical scientists across CSU who conduct research in these areas.” said Long, PI of Social Sciences in Air Quality Climate and Health Research. “Interdisciplinary research is vital to us understanding the key issues and developing effective solutions to problems of air quality, climate change, and public health.”

Resident Fellows

Three Resident Fellows also receive support from the School to advance studies in global environmental sustainability:

Charles Davis, Department of Political Science. Charles’ research will address efforts by federal and state agencies to deal with air quality impacts associated with the production of shale-based oil and gas resources in the U.S.

Colleen Duncan, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology. Colleen’s Fellowship will explore the concept of health as a unifying theme through which to promote conservation and sustainable use of public lands.

María Fernández-Giménez, Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship. María plans to explore how art and sustainability science intersect, and specifically how poetry, storytelling and music can be used to discover, analyze, and communicate about human-environmental relationships.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in the SoGES Resident Fellowship program for 2015-2016,” said Duncan. “I’m interested in learning how to better integrate sustainability into my own research and outreach projects, as well as how to share this information with veterinary students and other animal health professionals in our college.”